NESA Community Service Awards


In the fall of 1998, the NESA Board of Directors and the NESA teacher representatives from regular member schools collaborated to establish and fund annual grants to service projects at NESA regular member schools which bring faculty and students together in an on-going effort to serve the less fortunate in their host communities.

Funds raised through a charity raffle at the annual NESA Spring Educators Conference are matched up to $1,500 by the NESA Board. Each year, a minimum of three and maximum of five grants of $500-$750 are awarded. Applications are accepted December 1 - February 1.

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Programs and projects at NESA 'regular member' schools only are eligible to receive grants. If you are an educator at a NESA regular member school and are interested in applying for a grant, please inform your Teacher Representative.

2009 NESA COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDS

At the 2009 Spring NESA Educators Conference in Cairo, Egypt, grants were awarded to the following projects:

“Week Without Walls Two-day Community Service” – Walworth Barbour AIS, Even Yehuda, Israel
Coordinator: Silvia Harati

The WBAIS Week Without Walls program is divided into two sections: three days of an "outward bound" experience, and two days of serving the community. This year, 184 high school students participated in 11 community service programs within the local community, including:
  • Joining autistic and disabled youth and adults in their occupational therapy and other activities
  • Collecting, packing and distributing food parcels to the needy
  • Performing for elderly residents in the intensive care unit of a local retirement home
  • Volunteering at a Therapeutic Riding Center
  • Playing with the children from Save a Child's Heart, which provides heart surgery and follow-up care for children from third world and developing countries
  • Visiting children with life-threatening illnesses at Schneider's Children's Hospital
  • Hosting Israeli Arab children from the neighboring town of Tira for an "English Happening" experience
  • Continuing work on the "Calendar for Ethiopian Colors" to feature the cultural richness of this immigrant group.
As part of WBAIS's strategic planning process, the school has declared that, "by the year 2015, each student will demonstrate responsible citizenship by choosing to make positive contributions to society." The WWW Community Service program exposes students to people and situations which may take them out of their comfort zone. In many cases, student were surprised to discover inner strengths that they didn't know they had.
aisrael@wbais.org
“Baqqa Refugee Camp & Community Development Center, Tikyyet Um Ali Food for Life Organization, Friends of the Environment/Tree Friends Society, Ruwwad Project, Home of Love ” – ACS Amman, JordanSorting food and clothes at the Baqaa Regugee Camp.
Coordinator: Alina Spiridon

ACS Amman provides service to a variety of projects within the local community:

- Baqqa Refugee Camp & Community Development Center (CDC) Project - The ACS Community Service Club (HS) collected enough dry food goods for 80 families at Baqqa and 150 families in Sweileh (through the CDC), during Ramadan. The Club also collected 1200 clothing items during its Warm Clothes Drive in time for the Eid holiday.
Preparing food packages during Ramadan.
- Tikyyet Um Ali Food for Life Organization Project - ACS students packaged and delivered over 1000 food packages to poor, remote villages, and served iftar meals to over 700 needy individuals during Ramadan.

- Friends of the Environment/Tree Friends Society Project: The ACS Community Service Club is Painting a wall in a poor neighborhood of Amman.responsible for the ACS paper recycling program, and this year worked with local environmental groups to plant and water (for a year) 80 trees on Amamma Mountain.

- Ruwwad Project: ACS students painted three houses, one street wall and a kindergarten (in Jabal Nadhif) located in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

- Home of Love Project: ACS students visit an orphanage for disabled children one Saturday morning every month to give the dedicated nuns who run the orphanage a deserved rest. The students play with, feed, dress and put the children to bed.
“Rehabilitation Centre for the Communication Impaired (RCCI)” – Overseas School of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Coordinator: Nyriz Illeperumaarachchi

Since its inception in 1993, the RCCI has provided therapy to over 7,000 children and adults with speech and language impediments all over Sri Lanka, "without regard to their ethnic, religious or socio-economic background". As the first educational institution in Sri Lanka to support RCCI, the Overseas School of Colombo has maintained a strong relationship with the Centre more than seven years.

OSC students visit the RCCI premises once a month, and RCCI students in turn visit OSC three times per month. Therefore, there is contact once a week. Students organize physical activities such as sports or dancing in order to improve physical coordination. In recent years, the OSC community has donated toys, equipment, and most importantly, their time.  Also, the International School of Amsterdam has provided teaching aids. This year, a Christmas party is planned, along with other special events.

OSC's main goal is to raise enough funds to construct a permanent home for the 60 RCCI children. Over the past seven years, funds have been raised via t-shirt sales, bake sales, etc. This year, OSC is encouraging major companies and NGOs to support RCCI. 
“Through Human Touch” – ACS Beirut, Lebanon
Group Members: Fatima AbouNassif, Aya Gharbawi, Samia Husari (grade 11 students); Teacher Rep: Nabila Hamadeh

Brief statistics about orphans in Lebanon (2007): Children who have lost one or both parents: 71,000; children whose mothers have died: 22,000; children whose fathers have died: 52,000; children whose both parents have died: 2,900. ACS Beirut's aim through this project is to provide this particular group of babies with the basic psychological needs they are lacking. ACS students have visited this orphanage for about a year.

Studies have shown that touch is essential for healthy childhood development. ACS chose to work with the infants for consistency, since they stay at one campus until they are 7-8 years-old (older children get transferred to other campuses). These 6-8 babies live in a communal room with 12 cribs, two newborn cribs, two play cubes, two play mats and four baby rocking chairs. Additional babies, whose parents work and cannot afford a nursery, stay during the day.

ACS students visit twice a week, for total of about three hours per week, aiding in psychomotor activities (walking, clapping, dancing, etc). They raise funds via bake sales and other school events to help buy basic needs and educational toys. ACS is aiming to help the mentally and physically ill orphans, especially one case of brain paralysis, a two-and-a-half-year old boy who needs physical and speech therapists.

2008 NESA COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDS

Grants were awarded at the April, 2008 NESA Spring Educators Conference in Bangkok, Thailand:

“Nation to Nation Flip-Flop Frenzy” — Kodaikanal International School, India
Coordinators: Brian and Heather Nelsen


“Our Role in Fighting Hunger” — ACS Amman, Jordan
Coordinator: Wafa Khoury

“The Village Project” — ACS Athens, Greece
Coordinator: Ellen Froustis-Vriniotis

“Huay Hoi, Thailand, Middle School Project” — ACS Abu Dhabi, UAE
Coordinator: Bonnie Bertoia

2007 NESA COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDS

Grants were awarded at the March, 2007 NESA Spring Educators Conference in Athens, Greece:

“The Mother Teresa Home” - Schutz American School, Alexandria, Egypt
Coordinator, Kelly Marie Sullivan


“Children of KE.PE.P Lehenon” - ACS Athens, Greece
Coordinator, Ellen Froustis-Vriniotis

“Habitat For Humanity” - AIS Chennai, India
Coordinator, Karen Kinsella

2006 NESA COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDS

Grants were awarded at the March, 2006 NESA Teachers' Conference in Bangkok, Thailand:

"Shatby Children's Hospital" - Schutz American School, Alexandria, Egypt
Coordinator: Kelly Marie Sullivan

"High School Reach Out Program" - The American Embassy School, New Delhi
Coordinators: Sangeeta Kala & John McCandless

"In Support of the Orphaned and Abandoned: SOS Children's Village" - American Community School, Amman, Jordan
Coordinator: Wafa Khoury

"Earthquake Relief Project" - Karachi American School, Pakistan
Coordinator: Andrea Khan